Infrastructure Improvement

At City Council meetings, we often hear a groan from the back of the
room whenever we broach the topic of sewer pipe infrastructure
improvements. Perhaps talk of sewage is not as exciting as deciding
whom to award the key to the city. But a recent event like the steam
pipe explosion in New York reminds us of how vulnerable a city's
infrastructure can be, and how much damage can occur if core systems
are not maintained.

Right now, Medford is looking at major problems in its sewer system.
We need to make physical repairs to a large network of sewer pipes
because of I&I, or inflow and infiltration. Problems with I&I are
costing Medford rate payers over $3 million per year.

Medford’s sewer system comprises 120 miles of pipes. Unlike water
pipes, which are often full because of the pressure needed to
deliver water to consumers, sewer pipes are not always full; they
fill when waste from homes and business flows into them on its way
to the sewage treatment plant. So when sewer pipes crack or break,
water is let in. Much of this water is ground water that infiltrates
our sewer pipes and rainwater that arrives via illegal catch basin
connections . This extra flow weakens the pipes and sends water that
we’re not even using to the treatment plant to be treated as raw
sewage. This can can get very expensive, if you consider that
roughly 56% of the sewage that leaves Medford to be treated is
because of I & I, and that although an average of 5.5 million
gallons of water come into the city each day, 8.7 million gallons of
sewage leave. Who pays for this? Medford rate payers, that’s who!

This is a real problem. Many of our city’s sewer pipes are more than
100 years old and many are crumbling.

My solution to handling this matter would be to take a long–term,
systematic approach that would offer benefits in the areas of
revenue and safety. First, we would eliminate illegal catch basins
through zero-percent interest loans offered by the Massachusetts
Water Resource Authority. Then, we would reline our sewer pipes to
make them stronger. Relining has many benefits. Because it involves
less construction, it would serve as less of a disruption to our
neighborhoods and businesses. Also, relining would total about
one-third of the cost of replacing the pipes. While these physical
changes are going on, we could be drafting a multi-tier rate system
that would base water users’ rates on volume. The system would be
based on fairness. Low-volume users, such as individual residents,
would pay a lower rate than such high-volume users as large
businesses.

I have led the charge in the city regarding this issue and have
offered many resolutions before the council to act quickly and make
this a top priority. The longer we wait, the older our
infrastructure will get and cost will continue to rise. There's
plenty of room for trouble. Let's catch it before a trouble becomes
catastrophe.